KM Today

Canada 3.0: Canada’s Digital Economy

Wish I’d been able to attend this event, but here are the 15 ideas, spanning 5 streams: creating, learning, empowering, changing, revolutionizing, that recommend ways to improve Canada’s digital economy based on the issues raised during the two-day discussions. Here’s the summary from Jennifer Kavur, Computer World Canada,

1) An online “concierge” that would bring provincial and federal government together with one portal to make it easier for people to access and discover what government programs are available.

2) A provision of copyright laws that would allow people to choose what they want to charge and what they want to charge for to help them monetize content.

3) A “risk fund” for projects that recognizes the emerging market and allows for artistic experimentation. The fund would specifically acknowledge that the only way Canada will innovate and change is by acknowledging and accepting the risk of failure.

The learning stream, presented by Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) president Sara Diamond and Ken Coates, dean of the Faculty of Arts at OCAD:

4) A national provincial plan across curriculum – from K-12 to post-secondary education – that would bring literacy, numeracy, writing and digital skills to the Canadian population. This strategy coordinates literacy on both the federal and provincial scale. One component includes an open source repository for resources.

5) A national repository of co-op programs and internships for students and recent graduates. This would involve the private sector working with post-secondary institutions.

6) Similar to the online concierge for the creating stream, a research and commercialization concierge that would streamline the programs that facilitate funding to help researchers and companies successfully commercialize research.

7) A commercial and technical infrastructure to build strong companies. The message is “scale matters.” Also, training and retention are crucial .

To become more strategic with Canadian content policy.

9) To start a conversation across institutions, businesses and countries on a semantic taxonomy for facilitating open and cost-effective rights management and transactions.

The empowering stream, presented by Rene Barsalo, director of research and strategy for the Society of Art and Technology; Christopher Labrador, vice-president of advanced research at Research in Motion Ltd.; and Michele Perras, director of OCAD’s Mobile Experience Innovation Centre:

10) To approach the Canadian next-generation network infrastructure as a public utility. In the context of networks, private industry may not be able to do this on its own, said the co-chairs.

11) WiFi networks need to be widely accessible, much like basic cable, for Canadian citizens.

12) Canada 3.0 attendees need to provide the focus and motivation to enable change. The co-chairs suggested each attendee contact at least one person they met at the event before the end of this month to discuss what each party is doing to create change.

The revolutionizing stream, presented by Dan Larocque, vice-president of the Canadian public sector at Open Text Corp., and Jeff Nesbitt, vice-president of government relations and strategic programs for Agfa Healthcare Inc.

13) To digitize the Canadian health care system by 2017, which includes enabling practitioners through digital tools, automating processes to increase productivity and reduce error-related risks and allowing patients to manage their own healthcare.

14) For governments at all levels to harmonize standards and care practices in healthcare IT systems by 2017 in order to take advantage of new innovations such as cloud computing and mobile technologies.

15) A call to action, directed towards the meeting for ministers in Toronto next month, to commit to developing an innovation strategy by May 2011 that leverages the $182 billion Canadians spend each year on health care.